The present invention relates to a handle that is attachable to wafer carriers or baskets that are designed for carrying and storing substrates, such as silicon wafers.
Wafers are processed by the semiconductor industry in the manufacture of electronic devices such as integrated circuit chips. The carriers typically have end panels for reinforcement, slotted side walls for confining the wafers and allowing processing fluids to obtain access to the wafers, and inner support surfaces and ribs for supporting and spacing the wafers.
The processing of wafers requires that they be successively immersed or sprayed with liquids and gases, and drained free of such liquids. Machines used in this process commonly have a turntable for mounting a carrier with wafers for processing. Other types of machinery may be used employing conveyors and/or racks.
In the past, wafer carriers have been handled manually for loading onto the turntable and similarly removed by the same method. This method of handling the carriers may introduce contaminates and particulates into the processing machines that may affect the cleanliness of the wafers being processed. Particulate and other contamination of the wafers must be avoided in order to manufacture an integrated circuit chip operable within the range of standards set by the industry.
Wafers that are presently being manufactured have diameters as large as eight inches. Typically twenty-five of such wafers are within a single carrier which requires that the carrier be large enough for this capacity. Such a carrier which is full of wafers will weigh 8 to 9 pounds. Ten inch wafers are now starting to be used and will be in common use in the foreseeable future. Hence, the manual gripping of the carriers required to load and unload them into machinery is awkward, difficult and nearly impossible to be performed by a person with small hands. This is particularly so for women who are employed in great numbers in the manufacturing process of silicon wafers.
During loading into and unloading carriers from a turntable, the carrier is oriented with its ends at top and bottom, and the opening is at the side. Care must be taken to prevent wafers from sliding out of the carrier to prevent damage to and breakage of the wafers.